Cigar-box.



' 'No. 682,867. Patented Sept. I7, 1901.- u. a. CLARK.

CIGAR BOX.

(Appliution filed Feb. 14, 1901.)

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UNITED STATES PAT'ENT- omen NELSON BARTLET GLARK, OF BEVERLY, MASSAOHUSETTS'.

ClGAR-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming ater Letters Patent No. 682,867, dated September-.17, 19off' f Application filed February 14, 1901. Serial No. 47,207. (No model.) i

T0 at whom it may concern: Be it known that I, NELsoN BARTLETT CLARK, a citizen of the United States, resid ing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented cer-' tain new and useful Improvements in Cigar- Boxes, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a side view of an ellipsoidal package or bundle of cigars. Fig. 1 is an end elevation thereof. Fig. 2 isalengthwise central section of my new box for such packages or bundles with a bundle in place. Fig. 3 shows a number of such boxes packed in a box for transportation.

The object of my invention is to produce a box in which approximately ellipsoidal-shapedpackages of cigars may be transported with a minimum danger of breaking their fragile end portions and wrappers.

Heretofore cigars have been frequently massed in round packages or bundles, the ends of which have been subjected to compression, whereby the packages have been made approximately ellipsoidal in shape. Such packages have frequently contained twenty-five cigars. One or more of the interior cigars in these packages have been generally approximately straight, while the surrounding cigars have been bent inwardly at the end portions, and owing to this inward curvature of the end portions of the outer layers of the cigars both the tips and the fire ends of the outer cigars have been brought successively nearer the middle portion of the package, as will be readily understood from Fig. 1, where the tips a and the fire ends?) of the cigars which are so compressed are in consequence of said inward curvature at varying distances from the apices of the package. Heretofore these approximately ellipsoidal packages or bundles of cigars have been wrapped in bag-like flexible wrappers, and in course of handling and transportation the tips and fire ends and portions of the cigarwrappers near the ends have been frequently abraded or cracked, to the considerable loss and damage of the dealer and to the loss and My new box for these approximately ellipsoidal packages of cigars is formed with interio'rly-recessed "ends A A, which receive and fit' the approximately ellipsoidal ends of the cigar packages, as shown in Fig. 2, the inner approximately el-, lipsoidal walls of these ends A A nicely fit ting the ellipsoidal ends of the cigar-packages, and thereby keeping the cigar ends firmly compressed and from moving one against the other under the shocks and jars 6o incident to handling and transportation. In order to prevent lateral crushing of the box ends A A, they are made of wood or other suitable rigid material, such as metal or pulplike products, the body Bof the box being preferably for economic reasons a cylinder of paper or other suitable material.

' In the preferred form of my invention the exterior surface or wall of each box end A A is approximately ellipsoidal at its outer portion, so that when the loaded boxes are packed one on another, as shown in Fig. 3, the outer portions of the box ends A A are out of contact one with the other, and the weight of the grouped boxes is brought upon the inner end portions of the box ends adjacent to the body portions B, so that the packed cigar-boxes sustain such weight intermediate their ends as at the rigid supporting-margins d of the rigid box ends A A. I do not limit this invention, however, to box ends which are specifically ellipsoidal in exterior configuration, the essential point respecting the exterior configuration being that the box ends shall have some kind of converging outer walls, so that when the boxes are packed in numbers the box ends may be out of contact one with the other and the weight of the so-packed boxes be concentrated on those portions of the boxes which are between the converging outer surfaces of the box ends-as at d, for example; but in all forms of my new box each box end is provided with an end projection 01' bearing-knob A which is preferably elastic, so that when end pressure comes 5 on the cigar-boxes such end pressure may be concentrated at the apices or extreme ends fragile portions of which are at and near their fire ends, and I find my new box to be particularly adapted in practice for this purpose.

In the present preferred construction of my box the ends A A are each formed with an exterior shoulder 19 and with a cylindrical flange 12, the shoulder I) being' preferably higher than the wall of body B is thick, so that when the boxes are packed in the packing-case the bodies, of opposed boxes will not contact, but have a clear space, as at d, between them and also between them and the outer wall of the packing-case. (See Fig. 3.) The cylindrical box-body B is slipped over and glued on one of these flanges, with its inner end abutting against the shoulder b of the box end to which it is permanently attached. The flange of the other box end telescopically fits into the open end of the box-body B and forms the box-cover. The combined box ends and body are preferably covered with tissue-paper a, which is wound into an elastic knob at the extreme end or apex of the permanent box end, and the cover-forming box end is similarly covered and formed with an elastic end bearing-knob.

In Fig. 8 my new boxes are shown in a packing-case D, wherein the boxes are insured against lateral and end crushing strains by means of the (preferably elastic) knobs A and also against lateral crushing of the boxbodies by reason of the Weight thereof and of their contents being supported as described.

What I claim is A cigar-box for ellipsoidally-ended packages of cigars, said cigar-box comprising a pair of rigid interiorly-recessed box ends and a cylindrical box-body; one of the box ends being detachable from the box-body; each box end being approximately ellipsoidal in exterior configuration, and said recesses being also approximately ellipsoidal to snugly fit and protect the ellipsoidal ends of a cigarpackage; apical knobs at the outer ends of said box ends; the knobs being of lesser diameter than the box ends; and the box-body being of lesser diameter than the adjacent walls of the rigid box ends, whereby the rigid supportingmargins of the rigid box ends project beyond the intermediate box-body.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

NELSON BARTLETT CLARK.

\Vitnesses:

EDWARD S. BEACH, E. A. ALLEN. 

